AFRICAN ACTIVITIES FOR SCHOOLS

Organising an Africa Day or Africa Week for your school?

See our list of ideas and activities below.  Please email your comments or suggestions and we will add them to our website.

We have selected a few African countries; Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and South Africa and have provided general facts about each country, worksheets and activities, useful websites and books

Click on the country for further info:

GHANA

KENYA

MALAWI

SOUTH AFRICA

Africa Day/Africa Week Activities for your School

1. Make a string of African flags to hang across your classroom or school hall.  Different classes could concentrate on West Africa, East Africa, North Africa, Central Africa and South Africa. Colouring Book of Flags
2. Select a different African country for each class in the school and make a display to share with the other classes.
3. Make an African market display to demonstrate the types of products and packaging, the use of recycled materials and how small volumes can be bought on a low budget.
4. Taste African fruits such as pineapple, mango, coconut, papaya, avocado and watermelon.
5. Involve the school canteen and have rice and beans with stew, yam chips, fried plantain or rice balls.
6. Discuss what fair trade means, identify African fair trade products and make a poster.
7. Listen to different examples of African music; traditional drumming, highlife and reggae.  CBBC Newsround has a Music of Africa Clickable Map.
8. Read African story books, suggested books.
9. Drama, act out an African story such as Handa's Surprise.  Have a basket of fruits (plastic, real or make with papier-mâché) and make animal masks for the children to wear (free download of mask templates @ sparklebox).
10. Play African games during playtime, CanTeach, cowfiles
11. Learn an African dance or do keep fit to African music.
12. Hold a class or whole school African quiz.
13. Make African musical instruments.  Shakers; fill plastic cups or tin jars with rice or barley, seal and decorate with coloured electrical tape.  Make African tambourine, dumbek drum and djembe drum
14. Make model African huts using wide tubes and cones for the roof.  Add raffia or twigs for the thatch.  Paint the walls with African animals or symbols.
15. Make a model African village or compound.  Use a large sheet of cardboard as the base, use papier-mâché to mould hills, rocks, river banks etc.  Make huts as above and arrange in a small circle, join together with cardboard walls to make a compound.  Include a well or borehole, washroom and toilet (pit-latrine).  Make fence for the garden using corrugated cardboard and tissue for the vegetables.  Make village accessories using coloured clay (or paint grey clay when dry), for example buckets, pots, fire wood, African drum, fruits and vegetables.
16. Make African masks using cardboard, papier-mâché or clay.  Excellent website for mask templates and information.
17. Make an African Tutsi basket
18. Teaching Drums can provide a wide range of African workshops to compliment your day; African drumming workshops, African dance, African story-telling and African arts and crafts workshops.  Look at our Africa Day Experience.

INFORMATION ON AFRICA

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia.  It covers 30.2 million km² which is 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area.  The population is approximately 1 billion, about 14.72% of the world's human population.  Africa is made up of 54 countries, the largest country is Sudan and the smallest mainland country is Gambia.  The Seychelles is the smallest island country.

The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

Africa has the world’s largest density and diversity of wild animals; large carnivores (such as lions, hyenas, and cheetahs) and herbivores (such as buffalo, deer, elephants, camels, and giraffes) ranging freely on open plains.  It is also home to a variety of "jungle" animals including snakes and primates and aquatic life such as crocodiles and amphibians.